Discourse Indicators of Neologisms (On the Example of the Neologisms of the First and the Second Decades of the 21st Century)

Abstract

The article tries to detect the discourse indicators of neologisms during different development stages (the creation, the usualization and the lexicalization). «Discourse indicators« are diverse linguistic means which can help to recognize the lexical innovation in the discourse and to ensure their understanding. These indicators draw the attention of the discourse recipient to some formal and/or substantive peculiarities of the language use and implicate general guidelines for the interpretation of an innovation. The innovations in the individual discourse arise mostly inadvertently in the communication flow and the number of the individual innovations used for the first time is relatively low. Therefore the discourse indicators of innovations in the initial stage can only be detected if they originate from the opinion–forming public personalities. On the contrary, during the usualization stage, when the innovation is being progressively established in the language community, some discourse indicators are used which let the discourse recipient identify and interpret the innovation correctly. A distinction is made between the discourse characterizing and content–related indicators. The necessity of the discursive indication depends on the communicative situation, on the anticipated discourse recipient and in particular of the assessments and intentions of the discourse producer. The absence of any discourse indicators can be considered as a sign of a completed lexicalization of a neologism and its establishment as an integral part of the general vocabulary.